I have cultivated an appreciation for the sense of humor displayed in a comment made in 1656 by John Reeve, the self-styled prophet of the British sect known as the Muggletonians.

Millenarian hopes and visions surfaced at the time of the Peasants' Revolt and again among 17th-cent. sects such as the ranters, Muggletonians, Fifth Monarchy men, and some early Quakers.

Some, like the Ranters and Muggletonians, may never have existed as an identifiable and proselytizing movement as such: perhaps they served primarily as scarecrows, and as targets for legislation such as the Blasphemy Act of 1650.